“The level of detail we’re seeing is rare in protoplanetary disk imaging,” commented Kristina Monsch from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. The level of detail is possible due to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope’s imaging of IRAS 23077+6707, commonly referred to as “Dracula’s Chivito” in visible light. This ginormous planetary disk is light-years away from us at 1,000 light-years and is approximately 400 billion miles big, which is 40 times our entire solar system. This is now recognized as the biggest discovered yet.
Because the disk is oriented nearly edge-on, it hides the glare of its central star while showing off a layered appearance composed of dust and gas. Emissions stretch high above and below the plane of the disk, but curiously enough, the elongated “filamentary” structures exist only on only one side. This is a highly suggestive clue that certain energetic forces are at work to shape the disk, perhaps in the form of material falling onto the system just recently, or maybe due to interactions with the outside environment. “We were stunned to see how asymmetric this disk is. Hubble has given us a front row seat to the chaotic processes that are shaping disks as they build new planets processes that we don’t yet fully understand but can now study in a whole new way.”
Protoplanetary disks are where planets are born and are made of leftover dust and gas from young stars. As time passes, gas residues accumulate on top of the star while solids increase from pebbles and eventually become planetary matter. Expected to have a mass of around 10 to 30 times Jupiter’s mass, IRAS 23077+6707 has sufficient matter to produce multiple gas giants. Some scientists believe it may be a grown-up version of our own solar system and possibly unique opportunities for planet-forming science.
The level of detail provided by the imaging power of the Hubble Telescope is also a major concern. In other words, the detection of infrared emissions provided by the James Webb Telescope works very well. However, in the case of the Hubble Telescope, observations made in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum are able to map the scattered starlight to determine the distribution of small dust particles.
The level of turbulence and asymmetry observed in “Dracula’s Chivito” is consistent with theories where instabilities, vortices, and asymmetric infalls of mass break the symmetry of the disk. Other systems like Vega’s remarkably flat debris disk have been analyzed, and it was found that discs around stars have diverse properties. There is no giant planet to shape the dust found in Vega’s system, while IRAS 23077+6707 is irregular due to strong sculpting mechanisms.
More refined simulations of disk evolution and processes of angular momentum transport have been applied to MHD disk winds and have helped understand their impact on disk structure. In certain objects, MHD winds have been found to be more efficient than viscous turbulence and have assisted in gap creation with less massive planets. These phenomena may be relevant for understanding the true one-sided filaments of IRAS 23077+6707.
With a capture of the largest and certainly one of the most bizarre planet-forming disks ever observed, Hubble has stretched the analog of a planetary birth Lab. With a combination of visible light precision, paired with Webb’s infrared power, a two-wavelength decomposition of disk conditions, ranging from fine disk conditions unblemished by planetary development to asymmetrical conditions like “Dracula’s Chivito” disorders, has been achieved. This celestial sandwich has more meaning to both scientists and fans of space. It opens a door to an appreciation of how varied planetary development can be.
